Sunday, June 8, 2014Mysterious oily film cleared from Akron lakeResident reports seeing a similar substance three years agoby WKSU's KABIR BHATIA

ReporterKabir Bhatia

In The Region:

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has cleaned up an oily film floating on Summit Lake in South Akron. But they’re not sure what it was, or how it got there five weeks ago. Shawn Lautzenhiser lives nearby and says it smelled like kerosene. And he says this is not the first time this problem has hit the lake where he likes to fish.

“Actually 3 years ago, I got the EPA guy to come down here. Because it looked kind of like a grayish, filmy substance. So we came down here and there was some of this floating on the water. And I asked him then, I said, ‘well, are you going to scoop it up and take a sample?’ He looks around and says, ‘No, everything looks good.’”

Lautzenhiser says this time, the substance was frothier, and that the Akron Fire Department placed pads to soak up the liquid. He hopes those pads are tested to determine what the oily film was. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the city of Akron had no one available for comment Sunday, but told the Beacon Journal that no fish or birds were harmed by the substance.